NFL midseason awards: Who would win MVP, DPOY & more if season ended today?
Half of the 2022-23 NFL season is done and dusted, so this feels like an appropriate time to analyze the candidates for all the major awards.
With the NFL adding a 17th game last season and therefore an 18th week, the mid-way point has moved to past week nine. That means some of the players listed here have already played in each of those weeks, while others have only had the chance to participate in eight contests.
Due to this, per-game stats will be used more frequently than totals, in order to make easier comparisons between names.
On that note, here's a look at who would win each major award if the NFL season ended today:
Most Valuable Player (MVP)
Let's start things off with the most prestigious honor. The MVP is primarily a quarterback award. Many people have suggested that it should simply be split into the most valuable quarterback and non-quarterback on the offensive side, and you’ll soon see my solution to that.
#1 Patrick Mahomes
Mahomes was at No. 2 on the initial draft of this list, but with the way he led the Kansas City Chiefs to an overtime victory over the Tennessee Titans, he deserves top spot. Mahomes made some completely absurd plays in that game, while Josh Allen made a couple of really costly mistakes that led to the Buffalo Bills losing to the New York Jets, which just flipped those two names.
Mahomes leads the NFL in passing yards (2605) and touchdowns (21). More importantly, he is No. 2 in EPA per play (+0.314) and QBR (75.4), with a tremendous combination of clean football and the ever-looming threat that he may completely break the structure of the opposing defense, even if they do everything right.
Mahomes is probably the most creative player we’ve ever seen at the quarterback position, and that was on display yet against on Sunday night against the Titans. He constantly extended plays and allowed his receivers to separate on secondary routes.
He’s become so good at dropping back and finding windows to exploit zone coverage, as teams have almost completely stopped blitzing him. Yet, if he does get chances to attack isolated match-ups, or catches somebody with his eyes in the backfield, he can quickly make them pay. He also has the ability to convert a third-and-long himself despite his 4.8 speed.
#2 Josh Allen
As mentioned before, Allen occupied the top spot on this list not too long ago, but unfortunately for him, he threw a couple of head-scratching interceptions in each of the last two weeks.
It’s not really the fact that he’s aggressive down the field, rather it has been some ill-advised, late throws, which we saw from him early in his career.
With all that being said, through the first six weeks, he had been absolutely spectacular. Right now, he leads the league in total yards (300 passing and 49 rushing per game) and touchdowns (23) responsible for.
The stress Allen puts on defenses in every single snap with his ability to either take a shot down the field, create an extra play on the scramble drill or become a freight train by running it himself, is almost unfair.
He currently leads the team in rushing, at 6.3 yards per attempt. He has delivered knockout punches, but also led a couple of game-winning drives against the Baltimore Ravens and Chiefs, with some alien-like plays.
He almost produced another one this past Sunday against the Jets, as he launched the ball 70 yards after escaping the pocket. It would have hit Gabe Davis right between the numbers, if not for Sauce Gardner disrupting the catch-point/interfering (depending on your interpretation).
#3 Lamar Jackson
The Ravens are 6-3 at the bye week and don’t face another team with a record of .500 or better until Week 18 at Cincinnati. So there’s a good chance Lamar Jackson actually wins this award for the second time in his career, based on the team’s success.
With that being said, don’t let Baltimore’s dominant Monday Night win at New Orleans fool you into thinking they have been a juggernaut so far this season. This was the first time since the first week at the Joe Flacco-led Jets in which their defense held the opposition to fewer than 20 points.
All three of their losses happened on lead-changing scores allowed by their defense. Now granted, one of those was set up by an ill-advised pick thrown by Lamar after corralling a loose snap, but he also set up Justin Tucker for a game-winning kick to get the early advantage in the AFC North over the Bengals.
More importantly, he has been as crucial to his offense as any QB in the league. Not only has Jackson accounted for 42% of the Ravens' rushing attack, with nearly twice as many yards as the next-closest guy on the team (635), but he has also been responsible for 65% of their first downs and 72% of their touchdowns (18 of 25) as a team.
This, despite his primary receiver playing just 200 snaps, his top two running backs working their way back from injuries, and Devin Duvernay leading the WR corp with just over 300 yards so far.
We can gush about Lamar’s ability to shrug off a defender in the backfield, break the ankles of a guy in the hole and then run away from defensive backs, but he’s also been one of the best pure passers in the NFL.
What he can do in terms of scanning the field, manipulating guys with his eyes or shoulders, and changing up his delivery is truly special.
Honorable mentions: Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley & Tyreek Hill